1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing systems, and more particularly to image processing systems for real-time imaging systems with image capture and immediate image output.
2. Related Art
With the advent of digital photography, viewfinder systems for tethered cameras have improved but still have many shortcomings. A camera connected to a computer and the view normally seen through the camera viewfinder can be seen in real-time on the computer screen. This technology is previously known and can be found on numerous cameras. However, the current viewfinder technology is inadequate for environments where pictures are taken and immediately selected and printed. In such environments, post-processing of the images, such as recomposing, cropping, rotating, inserting graphics and text, has several drawbacks that current systems are not able to resolve. This post-processing of the images increases the time to produce a print, increases the expertise needed by the photographer and reduces the number of pictures taken and how many can be processed. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a system which minimizes the post-processing requirements.
With previously known systems, the aspect ratio of the live view is determined by the data stream coming from the camera, i.e., the source image. However, this source image aspect ratio is rarely going to be the same aspect ratio as the image that will appear on the print. As a result, it becomes difficult to accurately compose the photograph using currently available optical or digital viewfinder systems. The photographer is forced to guess at what picture elements will be in the photo and which elements will be cut out. For example if a photographer is using a typical modern digital single lens reflex camera the image from the camera has an aspect ratio of 1.5. The aspect ratio of a 5″×7″ print is 1.4 or and 8″×10″ print is 1.25. Some area of the image must be removed if the photo is to be printed with no borders or borders that have a uniform width. Even if a 4″×6″ print is created with the matching 1.5 aspect ratio matching the camera image, often times graphical banners or other elements are on the photo obscuring a portion of the print changing the aspect ratio of the printed area. If the aspect ratio were the same for all steps in the photographic process (live view, previewing for print selection and printing or other outputs), the quality and speed of the operation could be greatly improved. With current systems, the photographer must reevaluate how much of the picture will be cropped out whenever changes are made to a camera's image sizes and aspect ratios.
Additional problems occur when the camera is attached to a tripod and the photographer needs the ability to switch between portrait and landscape orientations. With current systems, the photographer must physically rotate, realign and re-secure the camera on the tripod. This is a disruptive, tedious and time consuming process especially at events where many people must be photographed in a short time. A viewfinder system is needed where a single click of a button, photo orientation is changed and the photographer only needs to make minor adjustments if any in the aiming of the camera.
In most prior art image processing systems for photo booths and photography studios, there is some loss of data from the captured image (the picture) at one or more steps in the process. In some systems, there may be a loss of data at each step from the viewfinder to the captured image to the output picture, whether it is a print or even a digital output, such as thumbnails. Existing photo booths and photography studios commonly crop the initially captured image as the picture is processed through the system. Typically, as the image is processed in the system, a portion of the picture is sacrificed through a cropping process to maintain the aspect ratio that is required by the system or device at the particular step.
The viewfinder usually shows the maximum size of the image, i.e., the source image. This aspect ratio rarely matches subsequent display screens and virtually never matches the output dimensions used for final compositions that may be in print or electronic formats. In photography, taking the picture and the composition of the photograph (relative amounts of space to the left, right, top or bottom of the subject of interest) may have little bearing on the proportions and content of the end product. Cropping an image can change the focal subject matter of the picture which can alter the context of the scene and possibly create a completely new work of art from an existing initial photograph. In other cases, sloppy attention to composition is thought permissible because of the anticipated cropping of the picture during the image processing steps.
The heavy reliance upon cropping separates what the photographer sees through the viewfinder from the end product. When the photographer is a professional with ample time to spend altering the picture between the time it is taken and the delivery of the end product, this may be an acceptable practice even with the inefficiencies and possible loss of resolution. However, in a photo booth and some photography studios, particularly those where pictures are being printed immediately after the image is captured, no professional photographer is necessarily involved, and the cropping of digital images commonly introduces loss of quality because of lossy compression algorithms used in many cameras for JPEG and other formats of image storage.
Many people who are given the opportunity to see the final composition of a picture in the camera's viewfinder are able to naturally compose well-balanced photographs. This includes self-portraits when the photographer and subject are the same person when this person is able to see the viewfinder while they are posing. If unintentional or systemic cropping is introduced between this composition step through the viewfinder (or a display thereof on a computer monitor) and the various processing step to the output image, the picture compositions are sacrificed and potentially significant elements of the picture will be cropped with the possibility of being entirely and permanently deleted from the image data.
Some systems perform post-processing on the pictures to produce a desired aspect ratio. For an original digital image that has already been taken in a pre-defined aspect ratio of a camera, some post-processing methods will format the aspect ratio of the image for the aspect ratio of a particular printer or other output for the picture while other post-processing methods may combine the image with other elements, including logos, banners and other overlays, such as calendars, postcards, photo collages and various photo arrangements. These known systems typically capture images in a particular aspect ratio that is set for the camera, and some camera systems are known to have various aspect ratio settings that can be selected by the photographer.
Examples of known image processing systems are described in the references cited in the accompanying Information Disclosure Statement.